And to your points:
Is the one you are so loyal to the very first one you tried? That would be pretty lucky.
No, not that lucky. First trips to gunsmiths when I was a kid ended up with mediocre results. Chose to spend the money on an overnight trip to a city that had a gunsmith I ended up with referrals to, along with being told it would cost me a bit more than I'd be spending locally. For rifles and shotguns, same gunsmith today, decades later, finishing my latest rifle.
May well be better gunsmiths/rifle builders out there, logic says that's probably true, but if so, I haven't been suffering from the difference. And when a job hasn't worked out as it should have, that gunsmith has been more interested in correcting the work than I have been. To the point he's gone well beyond what the basic fix would have been. At his cost, not mine, despite the fact I'm not even remotely close to being one of the guys who gives him a lot of spendy work on a regular basis. There's value in that.
What's really cool is that - unlike you - every year since he first did work for me, I haven't had to start asking which gunsmith I should use this year. Right before hunting season, of course.
I think there's value in that as well, which goes well beyond gunsmith-hopping, in hopes of saving a dollar or two on the next job.
You see, even though I was just a barely dry behind the years kid back then buying guns as fast as I could afford them, I learned. Saved me 40 years of looking for my next gunsmith. There's value in that as well.
I don't see how its a bad thing in ANY industry to ask if someone else can do the job as well or better, for the same or less money. Saving money has become a bad thing? If one doesn't want to be somewhat competitive, perhaps they should get that machinist job. I wouldn't think ill of them.
As previously posted, if the last work you had done with that job last year didn't meet the standards you expected for what you paid, you should have had that sorted out with that gunsmith last year.
And if you decided the cost was too high/quality was too low after that job last year, you should have already finished looking around and narrowing down who you would use the next time you discovered you'd need gunsmithing work done.
Logically, you'd do that before you have a broken rifle or need a re-barrel job to start looking. You're looking for a re-barrel job, what? Once again, two months from the start of hunting season? You didn't decide you'd never, ever need a gunsmith again, did you? And suddenly, surprise of surprises, you need a basic re-barreling job and still don't have a gunsmith you trust to do that work after apparently being disappointed with the gunsmith who did your sight installation work last year?
BTW, who WAS that gunsmith that disappointed you last year after the recommendations you got for the work? Wasn't Gunco one of them? Too expensive so you went elsewhere? Inquiring minds want to know.
I can pretty much guarantee that as long as your loyalty is to regularly trying to save a buck, you'll always be able to find a gunsmith - or a mechanic, or some other trade - that will undercut the last guy by a few bucks. A lot will end up quoting you about the same or more, but you will probably be able to find one. Probably every single job. And what you get in return will probably keep you looking for that next cheaper, hopefully better for the same money, gunsmith or mechanic every job for the rest of your life.
I don't have that relationship that you forged with them through overpaying yet.
I'm mildly amused that you apparently have some Ouiji Board or crystal ball that lets you know what somebody else's gunsmith charged for their work over the last 40+ years, that allows you to proclaim that they're overpaying for their work.
Or alternately, that the gunsmith they use overcharges for their work and the quality of the finished work they put in their customers' hands.
For my part, I don't need a crystal ball or Ouiji Board to know that anybody who goes on a nickle and dime search to find the cheapest gunsmith year after year, or chase the possibility that another gunsmith can do just as good a job for less money the next time, is never going to have much of a relationship with any gunsmith they go door to door to in the future.
Of course, it's you and your rifles, not me and mine, so these are just my observations on where I think a lot of value lies with gun owners and how they get the work done on them that they can't do themselves.
Beyond that, what anybody decides is the best way to get work done on firearms really doesn't matter to me. I hear the kids behind the counter at the local Canadian Tires do a kick-ass job of installing scope mounts and scopes on rifles if you buy them there as well. And cheap! Can't beat it!
So, good luck with all that. I'm wondering what job you'll be asking for a gunsmith recommendation for next year.
